In the music industry, it has often been desirable to alter the sound produced from a musical instrument using sound effects. Sound effects were originally produced using techniques such as manipulating reel-to-reel tape after recording or through microphone placement during recording. As such, early sound effects were limited to in studio productions. The ability for individual musicians to manipulate instrument sounds in-home became available with the emergence of sound effects modules. Sound effects modules are electronic devices that allow musicians to manipulate the sound produced from an electric or electronic instrument. Earlier stand-alone sound effects modules were impractical as the equipment was both bulky and costly. Thus, the first practical sound effects modules to be used regularly outside of the studio were those built into amplifiers using vacuum tubes. With the emergence of the electronic transistor, sound effects circuitry was able to be even further condensed into small, portable containers commonly referred to as stompbox units. Stompbox units can be designed to produce one or more effects and typically provide a number of controls for adjusting the extent to which the sound of the instrument is manipulated.
While sound effects modules are used with many different types of musical instruments, sound effects modules are most notably used in conjunction with electric guitars in the form of stompboxes. One issue with the use of stompboxes with electric guitars is cable signal loss, which is due, at least in part, to the length of the guitar cable that is used between the guitar and the stompboxes. The cable signal loss across the guitar cable between where the electronic signal of the guitar is generated to where the sound effect is applied results in a loss in tone, which is undesirable to most musicians. Ideally, tone effects are applied as close to the signal generation as possible in order to reduce the amount of signal loss that occurs before the effect is applied. Another issue associated with stompboxes is their accessibility. Stompboxes are typically either placed at the feet of the user or mounted together on a rack. Thus, in order for a musician to adjust the effects controls they must do so with their feet or be within an arm's reach of the rack. Resultantly, effects controls are typically adjusted before a set or an individual song and are not altered throughout.
Therefore it is the object of the present invention to provide a movement actuated tone effects system that is integrated into the body of an electric instrument and allows tone effects to be controlled through the movement of the electric instrument. The present invention provides a motion sensor unit, a processor, and a tone effects circuit, which can be housed within the desired electric instrument or retrofitted to the electric instrument through the use of an effects cartridge and a cartridge receiver. The motion sensor unit includes an accelerometer or a gyroscope or a combination thereof. The tone effects circuit provides the circuitry for manipulating the electrical signal of the electric instrument in the desired manner. The close proximity of the tone effects circuit to the origin of the electrical signal acts to reduce the signal loss before the desired effect is applied to the electrical signal. The motion sensor unit measures the movements of the electric instrument and converts the mechanical motion into electrical signals, which are sent to the processor as input signals. The processor then reads the input signals and outputs appropriate signals to control the tone effects circuit. In this way, the user can activate and deactivate effects, as well as control the parameters of the effects, by simply moving the electric instrument.